HOUSTON – It wasn’t supposed to happen this fast, not with the Plan B at head coach and the franchise quarterback everyone was doubting and the roster that was too young, too thin and too many years away. It was supposed to take two seasons, maybe three, for these revamped and rebuilt Indianapolis Colts to really make some noise in January.

It took one.

So much for the script. So much for the process. So much for patience.

“The Horseshoe is back, baby! The horseshoe is back!” that Plan B of a head coach, Frank Reich, was shouting as he jogged off the field in Houston Saturday night, his red-hot team 21-7 winners over the Texans in the wild card round of a postseason no one figured they’d be a part of 10 weeks ago.

That’s because 10 weeks ago, back in October, this team was 1-5, losers to the Bengals and the Jets, among others, sitting in the conference cellar, stuck in the slow slog of a rebuild that most figured would take years.

They’ve lost once since.

Next up: Kansas City, the top-seeded Chiefs and the divisional round of the playoffs.

“This is a dream, this is storybook,” offered running back Nyheim Hines.

“We’re a band of brothers,” added tight end Eric Ebron. “We literally started from the bottom. We were 1-5 and everyone wrote us off.”

No one will make that mistake again. Not with this group. Not after this season.

What began Saturday with a trip to Party City by a Colts’ trainer – T.Y. Hilton needed a clown mask, and needed it quickly – ended with owner Jim Irsay beaming inside a victorious locker room. “Dammit,” he shouted, “we can play better!” What transpired in between was the complete and convincing beatdown of a division rival, in their building no less, the sort of postseason triumph that speaks to how dangerous the Colts are at the moment, and will be for years to come.

They won ugly, won in the trenches, and won in a manner Colts teams never used to win in the playoffs.

Scariest of all: They’re built to win like this for a long, long time. The process is ahead of schedule, bound for Arrowhead, a team playing with house money that’s as hot as anyone in football, scared of no one.

“Why would we be scared?” Ebron said Saturday. “I like our chances against anyone.”

It starts with Reich, the unflinching leader whose conviction saved a season that could’ve spiraled. “He’s not a rah-rah guy, and I think that’s what this team respects about him most,” center Ryan Kelly said of his coach. “He’s real. He’s just real every single day. And there’s not, like, some magical secret. All it is is a bunch of guys coming in Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, busting their ass and playing for each other.”

Indianapolis Colts tight end Eric Ebron (85) reaches over the goal line for a touchdown as Houston Texans free safety Tyrann Mathieu (32) attempts to stop him in the first half of their AFC Wild Card playoff game at NRG Stadium in Houston, TX., on Saturday, Jan. 5, 2019. Matt Kryger/IndyStar

Indianapolis Colts tight end Eric Ebron (85) celebrates his touchdown in the first half of their AFC Wild Card playoff game at NRG Stadium in Houston, TX., on Saturday, Jan. 5, 2019. Matt Kryger/IndyStar

Indianapolis Colts cornerback Kenny Moore (23) and his teammates celebrate his interception in the first half of their AFC Wild Card playoff game at NRG Stadium in Houston, TX., on Saturday, Jan. 5, 2019. Matt Kryger/IndyStar

Indianapolis Colts cornerback Kenny Moore (23) and his teammates celebrate his interception in the first half of their AFC Wild Card playoff game at NRG Stadium in Houston, TX., on Saturday, Jan. 5, 2019. Matt Kryger/IndyStar

Indianapolis Colts tight end Eric Ebron (85) fights to control the ball but fails to come up with this touchdown catch during their AFC Wild Card playoff game at NRG Stadium in Houston, TX., on Saturday, Jan. 5, 2019. Matt Kryger/IndyStar

Indianapolis Colts tight end Eric Ebron (85) fights to control the ball but fails to come up with this touchdown catch during their AFC Wild Card playoff game at NRG Stadium in Houston, TX., on Saturday, Jan. 5, 2019. Matt Kryger/IndyStar

Indianapolis Colts strong safety Mike Mitchell (34) is helped off the field following an injury during their AFC Wild Card playoff game at NRG Stadium in Houston, TX., on Saturday, Jan. 5, 2019. The Indianapolis Colts defeated the Houston Texans 21-7 Matt Kryger/IndyStar

Indianapolis Colts tight end Eric Ebron (85) cradles the football like a baby following his touchdown during their AFC Wild Card playoff game at NRG Stadium in Houston, TX., on Saturday, Jan. 5, 2019. Ebron became a father for the second time earlier in the week. The Indianapolis Colts defeated the Houston Texans 21-7 Matt Kryger/IndyStar

Or take it from cornerback Kenny Moore, whose plucky rise from cut-day waiver-claim to star of the secondary is one of the more improbable stories in a season stocked with them. “What I’ve been a part of (in the past) is a lot of arguing to get things done,” Moore said. “I been places where guys just wanna do their own thing. Here, the coaches don’t let that happen.”

Moore said the team bought into Reich early, and even as the losses piled up back in September, this was a group that was gelling. Before a Week 7 game against Buffalo, Reich won over the offensive line by promising they were gonna become a run-first team.

The Colts rushed for 220 yards that day and won by 32. A week later in Oakland they ran for 222 and won by 14.

“What was the turning point of the season?” Kelly asks. “It was Buffalo. We weren’t passing the ball 65 times a game. Everyone recommitted. We committed to running the ball, and to each other.”

And they were on to something. A culture was forming. A belief was being built.

Players starting echoing Reich’s’ 1-0 mantra, then they started living it.

“Like I said when we hired him, ‘How could we be so stupid? He should’ve been our first choice to begin with,’” Irsay said of Reich Saturday. “He’s a smart guy who took a great job. He saw a great general manager and a great quarterback and said, ‘I’m hitching my pony there.’ Not everyone thinks that way. We love Frank. He’s our man.”

It was Reich who dialed Hilton’s number early Saturday, scripting several plays in the game plan to get No. 13 the ball. Sore ankle? No matter. Reich wanted Hilton involved, and he wanted to send a message: The Colts were coming. The fact that Texans cornerback Jonathan Joseph had jabbed Hilton earlier in the week – “That’s for clowns,” he said of Hilton boasting that NRG Stadium was his second home – caught the attention of the Colts’ star wideout.

He saw it as a challenge, a way to rev his teammates. Thus the assignment for the team trainer. Hilton needed a clown mask, and needed it fast.

The mask was procured – the last one the store had, Hilton said – and he slipped it on as he strolled into the stadium.

“Oh, (expletive),” was Andrew Luck’s reaction.

Hilton backed up the theatrics with a sizzling first series, snagging three catches for 63 yards on a touchdown drive. Reich’s plan had worked. Hilton gave the Colts a jolt of energy, a spark they’d ride to a 21-zip lead at halftime. Hilton had talked the talk, then walked the walk. The Colts followed his lead.

“When T.Y. goes out and gets going, that gets us all going,” Reich said.

From there they leaned heavy on that offensive line, the one that came alive midseason and changed the identify of this team and the tenor of this season. Marlon Mack finished with more rushing yards – 148 – in a playoff game than any Colt in playoff history. Luck wasn’t sacked once. The Colts won the old-fashioned way. They won in the trenches.

Reich knew all along that Luck could beat the Texans throwing 40 or 50 times a game; he also knew he didn’t want him to. He made a concerted effort all week to tell his players they were going to win this one at the line of scrimmage, where he believes playoff games are decided. What’s more: He knew they could.

“In playoff football, how do you win games?” Reich shouted to his team in the locker room afterward. “You dominate up front.”

They did. All game long.

Next stop: Kansas City, and the divisional round of the playoffs. From the bottom of the league to one of the last eight teams standing, an impossible ride and an impossible season. It’ll keep beating for at least one more week, into the heart of January, a place no one figured this franchise for three months back.

That’s when these Indianapolis Colts forgot the script. They started winning and haven’t stopped. Who knows if they ever will.